Alex Hall: Alex Hall's High School Sports: Getting back on track a challenge after layoff

May 9—THE Coe-Brown Northwood Academy outdoor track team's first meet this spring was the most stressful of longtime co-coach Brent Tkaczyk's career.

Coming off a canceled outdoor season last spring and indoor season this past winter, NHIAA coaches have had to teach underclassmen athletes who have never competed in high school track, refresh their upperclassmen who have been away from the sport for two years and navigate COVID-19 safety protocols within a shortened and limited regular season.

"The first couple weeks were organized chaos," Tkaczyk said. "You add on top the kids are running in masks. ...There were names of athletes I didn't know, all the other variables we'd never had before and never thought we would have. It's been an amazing season, one I'll never forget."

Despite not having an indoor season, many teams still trained together this past winter, albeit with smaller numbers.

Coe-Brown trained outdoors, sometimes using parking lots at the school. Souhegan had about a dozen girls and boys train indoors at the Hampshire Dome in Milford and coordinated three meets with Merrimack and Bishop Guertin of Nashua toward the end of the season.

Pinkerton Academy of Derry outdoor boys track coach Carol Quarles, who also coaches with the indoor team, said the Astros had about 25 athletes train at the school during the winter. In a normal season, Pinkerton's indoor team usually has at least 80 athletes, she said.

"Such a small number of kids wanted to come out and practice. ...It was very, very different and very hard," Quarles said.

Souhegan, Coe-Brown and the Pinkerton boys have each experienced a dip in outdoor track numbers this season.

Quarles has about 43 boys on her roster this year and she usually has double or triple that number, she said. Coe-Brown has 80 athletes when it usually pushes the 100 mark, Tkaczyk said. Souhegan has close to 40 boys, which is a good number for the team, and 20 girls, which is a little on the small side, said Jeff Wilson, who co-coaches Souehgan's indoor and outdoor track teams with John Eastman.

Wilson said the lack of an outdoor season last year has been more impactful than the lost indoor season.

"It became two years since some of them have run in a track meet, especially if they weren't doing indoor track," Wilson said. "We have kids — a lot of kids — who do Nordic or Alpine (skiing) in the winter (rather) than spring track. That's a long time between racing."

Wilson and Tkaczyk both split their teams into groups to start the season to best get athletes up to speed despite their varying experience levels.

"The real work came into play relying on the upperclassmen and coaching staff to support the younger kids who have never done a track meet before," Tkaczyk said. "The first day, we had the kids raise their hand if they had no idea how a track meet is scored. About two-thirds raised their hand. That's what we had in that moment. In the past month, we've done a lot of learning."

Even with the shortened season, Quarles has taken a slow approach with her team considering many of her athletes came in not as in-shape as usual without a winter season. And some athletes have been forced to quarantine.

Souhegan and Coe-Brown had not had any COVID-19 cases within their teams as of early last week.

"There's not a lot of time to really do the things you want to do so you're still having to do things slowly and you're not where you would normally be at this time of year," Quarles said. "You can't rush it either. Then you're just looking for disaster."

Regardless of their experience level, all track athletes have had to adjust to the COVID-19 safety protocols this season. Among the NHIAA's recommendations were that all athletes wear a face covering when not competing and during competition except for in javelin, discus, shot put, hurdles and pole vaulting, and staying socially distant at all times.

Quarles and Tkaczyk's teams wear masks at practices and meets except for when competing in the events that the NHIAA recommended to remove them for. Last Monday, Souhegan began allowing its athletes to practice without masks if they are 6 feet apart while outdoors on school grounds and to compete without wearing them unless an opposing school at a meet requires its athletes to wear them.

Wilson, Quarles and Tkaczyk each said they hope the NHIAA loosens some of its COVID-related restrictions for the state championship meets.

"The kids go both ways," Quarles said. "They're happy to have a season. They'd love to not have the extra protocols in place that feel like a hindrance. Hopefully by the time we get to states, some of those things will ease up so they can enjoy the state meet as they normally would."

Typical tent pole meets both in-state like the Merrimack and Black Bear Invitationals are canceled and teams cannot participate in some of the most notable Northeast meets like the Loucks Games in New York and Penn Relays in Philadelphia this year. Tkaczyk said Coe-Brown's distance group this year is the best in school history and believes it could have gone to the nationals.

Most teams' regular-season schedules consist of dual meets or "mini-meets" with a few other schools in their region.

Without the bigger invitationals, coaches have relied more heavily on the "battle notes" section of NewHampshireTrackandField.com, where teams can upload their athletes' results in events, to compare themselves to their divisional competition.

"I don't think any of us spend too much time dwelling on that," Tkaczyk said of missing out on the bigger meets this season. "The day-to-day grind, what we need to do to have the most sense of normalcy we can for this day, is the way we've approached it. I think that's the healthiest thing we can do — not spend any time wishing what was different — because it's bigger than us."

Coaches have started thinking about how the changes to the NHIAA state championship meets at the end of the month will affect their strategies. The NHIAA Division I, Division II and Division III title meets are split into separate girls and boys meets this year. With that change, athletes competing in multiple events will not have the same amount of in-between rest that they normally would.

The Division I girls meet is scheduled for May 27 at 4 p.m. at Winnacunnet in Hampton and the boys will compete at Winnacunnet the next day at the same time. The Division II girls meet is Saturday, May 29 at 9 a.m. at Pelham High School, with the boys meet starting at Pelham at 1 p.m. that day. The Division III girls meet is set for Tuesday, May 25 at 4 p.m. at Gilford High School and the boys will compete the next day at Gilford at the same time.

Bow wins without a hit

Over his 38 years either playing or coaching baseball, Bow coach Ben Forbes said he has never experienced a game like the Falcons' 3-0 victory over Merrimack Valley of Penacook last Monday.

Merrimack Valley pitchers Aiden Lacasse and Aiden Wood combined to toss a no-hitter but Bow manufactured one run in the second and two more in the fifth to earn the win.

Bow's Owen Petretta opened the game's scoring when he scored from third base on a wild pitch in the second inning. He reached base via a fielder's choice, stole second base and advanced to third on another wild pitch.

Alex Boisvert led off the fifth inning by being hit by a pitch, stole second base and reached third base via Calen Smith's sacrifice bunt. He crossed home plate on an errant throw to build a 2-0 Falcons lead. Ethan Clark, who went the distance for the Falcons on the mound, provided the insurance run later in the inning, when he scored from third base on a bases-loaded wild pitch with two outs.

"We didn't chase a lot of pitches up," Forbes said. "That's where a lot of those pitches missed. Our plate discipline was nice. It allowed us to set the table to take advantage of basically our ability to run and that put enough pressure on (Merrimack Valley) to induce a little overthrowing, maybe get a couple balls to the screen.

"That was an interesting one, for sure."

NHFOA seeking officials

New Hampshire Football Officials Association member Steve Hall said the organization is facing a critical shortage of officials and is seeking candidates interested in officiating this fall.

Hall said the NHFOA, which officiates NHIAA football games, offers a formal and comprehensive two-year training program, including rules review, mechanics and positioning and on-the-job training during sub-varsity games.

Anyone interested in becoming a football official should contact Kyle Scofield via email at nhfoaaprenticechair@gmail.com or visit nhfoa.net for more information. Candidates must be at least 18 years old as of Sept. 1.

Londonderry needs girls hoop coach

Londonderry has an opening for a girls varsity basketball coach. Those interested in the position can mail their resume and cover letter to Londonderry athletic director Howard Sobolov at the high school or email them to him at hsobolov@londonderry.org.

The person hired will succeed Nick Theos, who coached the Lancers the past seven seasons. Theos led Londonderry to the 2015 NHIAA Division I title in his first season as head coach and the team shared the crown with Bedford in 2020, when the playoffs were canceled after the semifinal round due to the pandemic. Londonderry reached the semis this past winter.

NH High Schools with Alex Hall runs Sundays during the season. Alex can be reached at ahall@unionleader.com.